The Stanley Parable is an experimental narrative-driven first person game. It is an exploration of choice, freedom, storytelling and reality, all examined through the lens of what it means to play a video game.
You will make a choice that does not matter
You will follow a story that has no end
You will play a game you cannot win
...it's actually best if you don't know anything about it before you play it :D

Welcome to the Editors Choice award for Mod of the Year 2011. Here the editors of ModDB have their say on the most prolific mods both released and unreleased to grace our presence over the past year. The awards have been split up into smaller categories, for more information on why that project was selected for the award please keep reading after the video below.

Interaction Award

Most unique use of player interaction

Interaction is a complex and strange beast, it could be as simple as removing traditional controls or as complex as breading a new strain of camera controls. Interaction is not limited to just what lay between the keyboard and the chair. The winner of this award needs to reinvigorate our perception on how video games should be played, and The Stanley Parable does all of that and more.

It is very hard to explain to all of you good people the exact reasons as to why The Stanley Parable needs to be experienced. The mod is short and does not use any custom textures or game assets, what it does deliver however is a very tight and focused game that pokes fun at games who are well... games. The most enjoyable bit about the mod (without going into great detail) is it's ability to break down the forth wall right before your eyes/ears and do it damn well.

Just play the mod and all will be revealed.

Creativity Award

Most unique use of gameplay/game direction

To say that a mod or game is creative in it's design is a little like saying it is hip to be different (sometimes). The mod needs to stand out from the pack in both the direction of the gameplay and the overall look and feel of the project. Titan: XCIX has this in spades! By far the one of the best modifications to remove the mother engines quirks and traits from the final production or as some might say the source engines sourceness.

What is delivered in the final mod is something all fans of sci-fi might have wondered at one point or another. What would it be like to be an engineer (loose term) on a active spaceship (not a red coat). The driving force is the well scripted narrative and the unique perspective on environmental interaction. Well deserving of this award!

Community Award

Best community integration in a modification

Without communities mods would be nothing more then a static object on the web, communities are responsible for keeping mods relevant, motivating the developers and expanding on the mod in their own way. To win the Community Award the mod needs to support the fanbase around the modification giving the masses a chance to participate within the overall design of the mod. The Dark Mod is the most deserving this year.

Building a community is quite a difficult and drawn out process, it first takes a good product to bring in people, then a reason for those people to stick around. The Dark Mod has an amazing collection of user created levels and theme packs built for competitions held by the developers. A shining example of how communities are important for all mods!

Worldly Award

Most complete realisation of a virtual world

Just about anyone can create a world in a game, you could simply say this boxed room in hammer is a world and be done with it. That will not cut it for Editors Choice. To even be considered for the Worldly Award you must first create a world, then fill it with lore, places to explore and no shortage of a looming threat helps as well. Just like the game Dibella's Watch originated from this mod is packed to the rafters with content and story.

Dibella's Watch knows how to please, the itch that was created in Oblivion and Morrowind has once again sprung up within the mod, a brand new massive continent for players to explore, side quests (and main) for the player to loose themselves in and experiences to be had. Skyrim, eat your heart out.

Best Upcoming

Best unreleased modification

New unreleased mods appear all the time, it takes something really special to announce and make an impression. You need to have something considerable to show, have an intriguing presence/idea and capture the attention of a large audience not just on ModDB. CANVAS did just that.

Popping into life back in June this year CANVAS made an impression, the visuals are the first thing everyone noticed, being on the source engine you might expect at this point some jank however all that we have seen so far is gorgeous visuals (check that city scape), smooth animations and a mysterious story. Our editors will have their eyes on CANVAS so should you!

CEO's Silver Spoon

ModDB's founder mod selection award

Now I see a lot of things every day here on ModDB. The founder of the site however spends a lot of his time on business related tasks and site expansions. Once in a blue moon he will take notice of a project, the reasons are mostly unknown to myself, maybe it reminds him of a younger self, maybe it tickles that primal urge we have as gamers, maybe he just enjoys the name. Whatever the reason this is his selection based on what I have seen him react to throughout 2011. Honestly you have to be something special for that to happen.

Unreal Revolution is in fact something special. A little backstory here, the third game in the Deus Ex series released this year, while keeping to the nature and feel of the first (the second is dead to me) game, it did modernise the game. Giving everything you can manipulate a nice golden glow, not to mention DLC issues that video games seem to have, as in DLC exists. Unreal Revolution is parody of the game mentioned above. Maybe that is why the founder likes it?

Best Multiplayer

Best released multiplayer focused mod

To even qualify for Best Multiplayer for Editors Choice you need two things. First you need to be released and a new IP within 2011 and secondly you need to be super fun with other people. No More Room in Hell gets two ticks!

Zombies are well, zombies. You can almost guarantee if you have zombies within your game people will like it. It gives reasons for players to shoot other humans without feeling bad about it. No More Room in Hell has been cooking for a long time, there is a colourful and detailed history of missed promise releases and messy development issues that plagued the mod. However 2011 was the year NMRiH saw light, and it was good! Bateman approved.

Best Singleplayer

Best released singleplayer focused mod

2011 has seen so many awesome singleplayer modifications, it was very hard to pick just one winner, just take a look at our top 100 to get a vague idea of the quality we were dealing with when we made this selection. However in the end there NEEDS to be a winner, and that winner is White Night.

Amnesia is scary all by its lonesome, but White Night takes that to the extreme. One of the first total conversions for the game players are tasked with navigating an abandoned (maybe) mental hospital. Why are you there, what happened to the hospital, if you can brave the mod maybe you will find out. A very thrilling mod!

Thank you kindly for your words about my Dibella's Watch. I put ten months of daily work into Dibella's Watch and I did it with the Skyrim deadline hanging over my head. ModDB was very supportive of the mod from the very beginning, when even TesNexus and the traditional Oblivion sites buried it. ModDB actually helped keep me going. It feels nice to be recognized in this manner, and all my future mods for Skyrim will also be published first on ModDB because of the support I've gotten and am getting around here as a modder from both audience, modder colleagues and the staff.

I'm actually kind of surprised to see so few categories (Where is story, art direction, music, horror, strategy and graphics, RPG, and other genre specifics???) but regardless, despite being an insanely thin roster of categories, they should be proud to be winners nonetheless. They're deserving of it, and each mod here is a fantastic one. I've played all of them, and while my favorite is probably White Night, all the others are good in their own ways.

Once again, 'grats to the contest winners. To Moddb staff, I don't think I'm alone when I say it would be awesome to have an actual award show again like 2008 and 2009, with lots of categories next year.

Indeed, there are many categories folks would be interested in for awards. The picks, however, do highlight rare (often overlooked) attributes that help differentiate a select few mods from the vast majority. Add a pinch of salt for that stance as the poster is from The Dark Mod which has been chosen (thanks!).

I would, however, love to see a technical coding award as the coders are the really rare hen's teeth that make many of these total conversion or graphic engine overhaul mods happen. Folks are quick to praise mappers, modelers, artists, musicians, etc ...but coders often are the silent hero's that make all the impossible stuff possible.